https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/22/opinion/ukraine-russia-war-four-years.html?unlocked_article_code=1.OFA.h9Fb.pBM8GW2Um-oJ&smid=url-share

Opinion | Ukraine Has Passed a Point of No Return
Four years that changed everything.

“‘For Orbšn in Hungary, it took about four years, for Vučić in Serbia, it took eight years, and for Erdoğan in Turkey and Modi in India, it took about 10 years to accomplish the suppression of democratic institutions that Trump has achieved in only one year’
…
US democracy is now back at the worst recorded level since 1965, when US civil rights laws first introduced de facto universal suffrage. All progress made since then has been erased, according to the report.
Worldwi…

The final piece of the central tower of Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia has been laid in place,
bringing the church to its maximum final height 144 years after work began.
After several days when it has been too windy to work,
the upper section of the 17 metre-high four-sided steel and glass cross was winched into position at 11am on Friday,
completing the tower dedicated to Jesus Christ.
At 172.5 metres, the Sagrada Familia, to which the Catalan architect Antoni G…

I just looked at the first commit for Kitten (then called NodeKit) from *four years ago* and, boy, has it come a long way since then :)
Four years ago: https://codeberg.org/kitten/app/commit/d8b59a8d9fc5625f510205b3f4fa798aedc57832
Today:

Initial add · d8b59a8d9f
app - A web development kit that’s small, purrs, and loves you.

Ukraine says it plans to share nearly four years of combat data, including millions of hours of drone footage, with allies to help train AI models (Max Hunder/Reuters)
https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defens…

"‘You Can’t Live Without Us’: How Big Oil Pivoted from Climate-friendly Messaging to Normalise Dependence on Fossil Fuels "
#Climate #ClimateChange #FossilFuels

'You Can’t Live Without Us': How Big Oil Pivoted from Climate-friendly Messaging to Normalise Dependence on Fossil Fuels  
Four of the world’s biggest oil and gas companies have spent the last four years systematically shifting away from climate-friendly advertising to push a new message: fossil fuels are here to stay, a report has found.  Campaign group Clean Creatives analysed 1,859 communications from BP, Shell, ExxonMobil, and Chevron published between 2020 and 2024, spanning paid advertisements on Facebook, YouTube, […]

Four years on, Russia is still paying for a fatal miscalculation in Ukraine (Matthew Chance/CNN)
https://cnn.com/2026/02/21/europe/russia-putin-ukraine-war-intl
http://www.memeorandum.com/260221/p7#a260221p7

This greenish Scott agrees!
https://mastodon.scot/@ScottishGreens/116108992515272064

Scottish Greens (@ScottishGreens@mastodon.scot)
Attached: 1 image Four years ago we delivered free bus travel for everyone under the age of 22. Now it's time to go further. We're committing to deliver free bus travel for everyone in Scotland - on a bus network that has been brought back under public control. 🚌

https://www.instagram.com/p/DTy4y3VDpS0/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

Japan Daily on Instagram: "Abandoned suitcases are becoming a growing issue at Narita Airport, where nearly 900 pieces of luggage have already been collected this fiscal year—about nine times more than four years ago. Police say around 10% of the bags are empty, suggesting intentional disposal, with storage and disposal costs ultimately borne by taxpayers. The problem extends beyond airports to train stations and public spaces, often linked to travelers avoiding disposal fees after shopping. In response, Narita Airport is testing solutions such as clothing compression machines to help travelers save space and avoid buying new luggage. Retailers and repair businesses are also encouraging reuse through free take-back and resale programs, aiming to reduce waste and promote more sustainable travel habits."
49 likes, 0 comments - japandaily_jp on January 21, 2026: "Abandoned suitcases are becoming a growing issue at Narita Airport, where nearly 900 pieces of luggage have already been collected this fiscal year—about nine times more than four years ago. Police say around 10% of the bags are empty, suggesting intentional disposal, with storage and disposal costs ultimately borne by taxpayers. The problem extends beyond airports to train stations and public spaces, often linked to travelers avoid…

I would love to post more often but just can't post happy / interesting stuff with this moron in the office of US president and the shit that he is pulling off. The country is run by a large collection of grifters and complete imbeciles and so far there is no way out of this... at best it will be full four years of idiocy but you know they won't stop there. Sigh, sometimes you wonder what to do. #USpol

Ravens TE Isaiah Likely on impending free agency: Baltimore is home but business is business https://www.nfl.com/news/ravens-te-isaiah-likely-on-impending-free-agency-baltimore-is-home-but-business-is-business

Four years ago, the conservative justices on the Supreme Court decided that gun laws must be rooted in history in order to comply with the Second Amendment.
But they are not always comfortable with the reality this analysis unearths.
The Supreme Court heard oral argument on Tuesday in
"Wolford v. Lopez",
a case about whether states can ban people from carrying concealed firearms on private property without getting the owner’s consent.
Under the Hawai…

The Supreme Court’s “History and Tradition” Test Just Ran Into America’s History and Tradition of Anti-Black Racism
Requiring "historical analogues" for modern gun laws eventually turns up some history that makes even the conservative justices uncomfortable.

🤯 45 km in FOUR years – THE REAL SPEED of PUTIN'S ARMY'S advance #shorts: https://benborges.xyz/2026/01/12/km-in-four-years-the.html

I can't stop thinking about the parallels between Evo and Cesar.

😶‍🌫️ Weed backlash grows in Thailand as kids turn to cannabis
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2026/01/23/asia-pacific/society/thailand-children-marijuana-backlash/
🆓

Weed backlash grows in Thailand as kids turn to cannabis
The plant could be criminalized once again after next month’s election, four years after its decriminalization.

#Blakes7 A01 - The Way Back
BLAKE: Forget the other things. Just what do you know?
FOSTER: They're dead. Your brother and sister are both dead. I'm sorry, I didn't intend you to hear it like that. They were executed four years ago just after your trial.

The #Agile Manifesto is now 25 years old - happy anniversary! 🥳
https://agilealliance.org/25-years-ago-a-manifesto-was-born/

25 Years Ago, a Manifesto Was Born | The Agile Manifesto | Agile Alliance
A concise history of the Agile Manifesto’s creation at Snowbird, told through participant recollections and the pivotal moments that shaped its four values, 25 years later.

Apparently we approved another bunch of tidal stream energy projects last month; it's only 20MW capacity, to be installed over a few years; but it's a pretty high price to try and get it going;
https://www.marineenergycouncil.co.uk/news

Four tidal stream projects successful in Allocation Round 7a | UK Marine Energy Council (UKMEC)
The Government has today announced four tidal stream projects were successful in Allocation Round 7a, giving the UK a deployment pipeline of over 140MWs.

Four years ago today, the original Steam Deck LCD was released 🎂🎉🍻 https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/02/happy-four-years-to-the-steam-deck-still-the-top-pc-gaming-handheld

Happy four years to the Steam Deck - still the top PC gaming handheld
Four years ago today, the original Steam Deck LCD released, with it going on to change how everyone sees handheld gaming PCs and Linux for gaming.

Even in Germany, #hydrogen refuelling stations for cars are disappearing. This one is being demolished after only four years. It was erected with a subsidy of one million euros. Could we do a back-of-the-envelope calculation of the subsidy per kg #H2 dispensed?

Auf dem SVG-Autohof: Wasserstofftankstelle für Autos wird wieder abgerissen
Kaum zu glauben, aber wahr: Die einst als signifikante Errungenschaft gefeierten Wasserstofftankstellen für Autofahrer sind offenbar ein millionenschweres Verlustgeschäft - zumindest im Segment der Pkw. Das Unternehmen H2-MOBILITY

RunPod, an AI app hosting service launched four years ago that raised a $20M seed in May 2024, says it has reached a $120M annual revenue run rate (Julie Bort/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/16/ai-cloud-startup-runpod-h…

AI cloud startup Runpod hits $120M in ARR — and it started with a Reddit post   | TechCrunch
Their startup journey is a wild example of how if you build it well and the timing is lucky, they will definitely come.

BBC Radio 4 Today presenter Amol Rajan leaves after almost five years to start his own business in the creator economy (Charlotte Tobitt/Press Gazette)
https://pressgazette.co.uk/the-wire/media-jobs-uk-news/amol-rajan-to-leave…

Amol Rajan to leave Today programme to start own business
Amol Rajan is leaving the BBC Radio 4 Today programme after four years to build his own company and take part in the creator economy.

Much more so than in his first four years in office,
Trump has begun his second term with what amounts to an all-out assault on many of the institutions and policy paradigms that have long been seen by leaders of both major political parties as the foundations of American economic strength.
He has sought to undermine the independence of the Federal Reserve,
fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, an agency that collects key economic data,
and cut funding to …

Trump’s First Year Could Have Lasting Economic Consequences
President Trump’s policies have so far done little to change the overall state of the American economy, but economists warn they will ultimately weaken the United States.

#Rant
Rob Shaw is solidifying his position as the new Dean of Right Wing, anti-Worker Legislative Reporters in British Columbia.
With these gems, it's incredible that he has an education or goes to a doctor at all…
"The BCTF is typically one of the most militant unions, and quickly prone to job action.”
BCTF Strikes since 2000:
2005
2014
phew! almost got to three!
Remember that this was at the time of a union-busting BC Liberal government that had to go to the Supreme Court of Canada to get told that they ripped up union contracts unconstitutionally and were *forced* to compensate many years later.
"The ratification is a win for a New Democrat government. And extraordinarily expensive for taxpayers, too."
“extraordinarily expensive. Really? How is a wage increase that is *barely* in line with inflation after literally decades of below-inflation increases, “extraordinary”? I'll wait.
"Teachers can thank the BCGEU for turning what was an initial 3.5 per cent wage offer over two years by government, into a more than 12 per cent increase over four that is now forming the baseline for all other union deals."
Indeed! For those who can do math, that means 3% each of 4 years instead of 3.5 over two. But thanks Rob for making it seem like 4 times more!
Thanks BCGEU members for your solidarity and perceverence! I have been on strike. It sucks HARD. But it was worth it and it works.
"The ratification by the BCTF means roughly half of the 450,000 public sector employees now have deals of some sort with the province. Two majors left on the table are nurses and doctors.”
Oh no! Let’s not pay doctors and nurses! Surely they'll stay regardless in our incredibly overworked and under resourced healthcare system!
Like how does Mr Shaw believe we are to stay competitive or attract people. Or is he just not worried about getting sick….
"The skyrocketing deficit has the NDP government inking sweetheart deals with organized labour on the one hand, while pledging to cut public sector jobs with the other.”
Ya, we could have kept those public sector jobs if it weren't for fools like you who demanded governments cut taxes over the past 20 years instead of reasonable rises to... again…keep up with inflation and retain service!
It is a crappy balancing act that the NDP is doing and I do not like a lot of it. At the same time as Mr. Shaw complains about "sweetheart deals" for people in post-secondary, I am seeing historic cuts in that same sector. It's a blood bath actually. So the potential wage increases are going to be welcome, but feel pretty hollow as so many collegues have left.
Rob Shaw would have had us all lose our jobs and take a pay cut at the next one for good measure.
Thanks but no thanks Rob, your world view sucks.
https://www.nsnews.com/economy-law-politics/rob-shaw-ndp-deal-with-bc-teachers-sets-another-costly-precedent-for-public-sector-talks-11966874

Giants surprise, re-sign Neal despite struggles https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/48178293/giants-re-sign-evan-neal-struggles-first-four-years

"The aim of the Ukraine government, the EU, the US government, the multilateral agencies and the American financial institutions now in charge of raising funds and allocating them for reconstruction is to restore the Ukrainian economy as a form of special economic zone, with public money to cover any potential losses for private capital."
Ukraine- Russia four years on – Michael Roberts Blog

Ukraine- Russia four years on
Today marks the end of the fourth year of the Ukraine-Russia war. After four years, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has caused staggering damage to Ukraine’s people and economy. There are wildly varyi…

Really glad the US just decommissioned the four mine sweepers we’d had covering the Strait of Hormuz, and glad we live in such a peaceful world that we no longer need them there as they had been for the last 35 years. Phew.
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz

Why the US Navy Is Decommissioning Its Minesweepers
A noteworthy fact about the Avenger-class minesweepers is that their hulls are constructed of wood—so as to avoid metal hull detection technology in modern naval mines.

UK's FCA adds Blockchain.com to its registry of licensed crypto companies; the company withdrew its initial application in 2022 to pivot operations to Lithuania (Jamie Crawley/CoinDesk)
https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2026/02/10

Blockchain.com wins UK registration nearly four years after abandoning FCA process
The London-based company elected to withdraw its application for FCA licensing in March 2022 having not won approval ahead of an impending deadline.

The Westborough Crusaders: The Trilogy That Took Forty-Four Years to Earn Its Novels
Some work waits for you. Not patiently. Not the way a dog waits by the door, loyal and uncomplicated. It waits the way a diagnosis waits in a family's bloodline, silently present, expressing itself in symptoms you do not recognize until you are old enough to understand what your body has been trying to tell you. In 1982, I was sixteen years old…

The Westborough Crusaders: The Trilogy That Took Forty-Four Years to Earn Its Novels | David Boles, Blogs
Some work waits for you. Not patiently. Not the way a dog waits by the door, loyal and uncomplicated. It waits the way a diagnosis waits in a family’s bloodline, silently present, expressing …

Timeless wisdom.
Bob Weir's 6 principles of rhythm guitar | Guitar World https://www.guitarworld.com/lessons/artist-lessons/bob-weir-rhythm-guitar-principles

“We play three to four hours a night or more. I study in real time, 100 gigs a year. That's a great deal of practice”: Bob Weir was the Grateful Dead's anchor – here’s how he boiled down 60 years of rhythm guitar wisdom into six essential principles
Often overlooked in guitar circles when compared to bandmate Jerry Garcia, Weir was a brilliant rhythm player who blended jazz, folk, country, blues, and rockabilly influences into a style that any guitarist would do well to study

The seismic diversity of four successive #SolarCycle minima as observed by the Birmingham Solar-Oscillations Network (BiSON): https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/547/1/stag277/8472642 -> Forty years of data give unique insight into Sun’s inner life: https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/news/2026/forty-years-of-data-give-unique-insight-into-suns-inner-life - scientists reveal that even small differences in solar magnetic activity produce detectable changes inside the Sun.

Mike McCoy named Assistant Head Coach https://www.raiders.com/news/mike-mccoy-named-assistant-head-coach

1,260,000 DEAD IN FOUR YEARS! Putin has officially destroyed the male population of the Russia: https://benborges.xyz/2026/02/24/dead-in-four-years-putin.html

“The DOJ is giving Congress just four computers in a satellite office to read the unredacted Epstein File of more than 3 million documents. Working 40 hours a week on nothing else but this, it would take more than seven years for the 217 Members who signed the House discharge petition to read just the documents they’ve decided to release (and there are 3 million still being withheld)."
‘A Bunch Of Sick Fucks’: Lawmakers Review Unredacted Epstein Files
https://washingtoncurrent.substack.com/p/a-bunch-of-sick-fucks-lawmakers-review

Cynicism, "AI"
I've been pointed out the "Reflections on 2025" post by Samuel Albanie [1]. The author's writing style makes it quite a fun, I admit.
The first part, "The Compute Theory of Everything" is an optimistic piece on "#AI". Long story short, poor "AI researchers" have been struggling for years because of predominant misconception that "machines should have been powerful enough". Fortunately, now they can finally get their hands on the kind of power that used to be only available to supervillains, and all they have to do is forget about morals, agree that their research will be used to murder millions of people, and a few more millions will die as a side effect of the climate crisis. But I'm digressing.
The author is referring to an essay by Hans Moravec, "The Role of Raw Power in Intelligence" [2]. It's also quite an interesting read, starting with a chapter on how intelligence evolved independently at least four times. The key point inferred from that seems to be, that all we need is more computing power, and we'll eventually "brute-force" all AI-related problems (or die trying, I guess).
As a disclaimer, I have to say I'm not a biologist. Rather just a random guy who read a fair number of pieces on evolution. And I feel like the analogies brought here are misleading at best.
Firstly, there seems to be an assumption that evolution inexorably leads to higher "intelligence", with a certain implicit assumption on what intelligence is. Per that assumption, any animal that gets "brainier" will eventually become intelligent. However, this seems to be missing the point that both evolution and learning doesn't operate in a void.
Yes, many animals did attain a certain level of intelligence, but they attained it in a long chain of development, while solving specific problems, in specific bodies, in specific environments. I don't think that you can just stuff more brains into a random animal, and expect it to attain human intelligence; and the same goes for a computer — you can't expect that given more power, algorithms will eventually converge on human-like intelligence.
Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, what evolution did succeed at first is achieving neural networks that are far more energy efficient than whatever computers are doing today. Even if indeed "computing power" paved the way for intelligence, what came first is extremely efficient "hardware". Nowadays, human seem to be skipping that part. Optimizing is hard, so why bother with it? We can afford bigger data centers, we can afford to waste more energy, we can afford to deprive people of drinking water, so let's just skip to the easy part!
And on top of that, we're trying to squash hundreds of millions of years of evolution into… a decade, perhaps? What could possibly go wrong?
[1] #NoAI #NoLLM #LLM

Fingers crossed. Since 1989, Missouri has exonerated 56 people. They tried to kill four of them.
https://www.stlpr.org/government-politics-issues/2026-03-10/bill-abolish-death-penalty-missouri?sfnsn=mo

Bill to abolish the death penalty in Missouri gets hearing for the first time in years
Proponents of the legislation who spoke at a Monday committee hearing, including St. Louis Archbishop Mitchell Rozanski, said life in prison without parole is more humane and still effective.

Hollywood Brown has 'a lot left to prove' in Philly, looks forward to playing with Jalen Hurts, A.J. Brown https://www.nfl.com/news/hollywood-brown-a-lot-left-to-prove-eagles-jalen-hurts-aj-brown

It's the most joyous of occasions: that moment every four years when the whole planet comes together to enjoy curling! Now we just need to get pétanque into the summer games.

The UK plans to spend £1B on quantum computing research over four years, including funding companies in pharmaceuticals, financial services, and energy (Mia Dawkins/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-03-17…

First time in four years using a wordpress powered site, still no fan
#wordpress

I'm with the auditors on this one! Companies deploying AI need more expert human auditing, not less, at least until fundamental flaws in 'AI' are addressed and it's reliably accurate
'KPMG gets money off its own audit by arguing AI makes accounting cheaper'

the rise and fall of stackoverflow
the graph of posts per month is quite something
the decline over the last four years is almost a mirror of the rise 2008-2012
and they are now down to near zero
https://data.stackexchange.com/stackoverflow/query/1926661#gr…

Cryptocurrency supporters in Washington
have spent the last four years working to rinse the stench of Sam Bankman-Friedoff of legislative efforts that could legitimize digital assets.
Now, as the convicted former crypto tycoon publicly vies for a pardon,
the industry’s leading cheerleaders in Congress are urging Donald Trump not to take the bait.
Bankman-Fried,
who was convicted in 2023 on fraud charges after his FTX crypto exchange collapsed,
has been hea…

@… Awww. So sorry.
As you requested, here's Izzy. We adopted her in 2020. She had been taken to a high kill shelter in South Carolina with four very young puppies. She had to raise them in the shelter for about 10 weeks, then was spayed and had heartworm treatment. When she came to us, she was terrified of everything. In 5 1/2 years, she's come …

Mike McCoy named Assistant Head Coach https://www.raiders.com/news/mike-mccoy-named-assistant-head-coach

40 years after first playing Frogger on my Atari 2600, I only just discovered that you can stay on a log or a turtle as it wraps around the screen. I’d assumed for over four decades that you’d die if you hit the side of the screen.
#frogger #atari2600

The incunabula period, during which we shifted into a print culture, took sixty years. We are under four years since the release of ChatGPT 3.5 and the era of actually useful LLMs.

A CBS News producer quits, saying stories may now be evaluated "on whether they conform to a shifting set of ideological expectations", causing self-censorship (Alyssa Ray/The Wrap)
https://www.thewrap.com/media-platforms/journalism…

CBS News Producer Quits in Fiery Note Lambasting Bari Weiss’ Break From ‘Journalistic Merit’
Alicia Hastey has departed CBS News as a producer after four years with the network, blasting Bari Weiss' break from "journalist merit" in a fiery note.

Cowboys' All-Pro: Tyler Booker 'one of the best rookies' I've ever seen https://www.dallascowboys.com/news/cowboys-all-pro-tyler-booker-one-of-the-best-rookies-i-ve-ever-seen

C.J. Gardner-Johnson explains joining Bills, his 5th team in 4 years: 'Surrounding myself with superstars' https://www.nfl.com/news/cj-gardner-johnson-bills-surrounding-myself-with-superstars

For the first time in, uh, over four years, I wrote a blog post:
pandoc-lecturenotes and the Quest for More Efficient Professoring
https://dynalabs.de/mxp/blog/2025-12-29
The post presents pandoc-lecturenotes, a set of

For the first time in, uh, over four years, I wrote a blog post:
pandoc-lecturenotes and the Quest for More Efficient Professoring
https://dynalabs.de/mxp/blog/2025-12-29
The post presents pandoc-lecturenotes, a set of

For the first time in, uh, over four years, I wrote a blog post:
pandoc-lecturenotes and the Quest for More Efficient Professoring
https://dynalabs.de/mxp/blog/2025-12-29
The post presents pandoc-lecturenotes, a set of

Microsoft says EVP of Experiences and Devices, Rajesh Jha, plans to retire on July 1 after 35 years at Microsoft and promotes four of his direct reports to EVP (Tom Warren/The Verge)
https://www.theverge.com/news/893755/microsoft-…

Microsoft’s head of experiences and devices is retiring, triggering a shakeup
Microsoft’s Rajesh Jha is retiring after more than 35 years. His departure sees promotions for the heads of Office and Windows.

Two years ago today I pulled out of Tacoma in this thing and headed for Santa Barbara
—after spending four months downsizing.
I came here help manage the affairs of an aging uncle, that I found through a DNA test six years prior and had only met once.
It's a crazy story but I'm glad I did it!
-- Glen Dunlap

Glen Dunlap (@glendunlap.bsky.social)
Two years ago today I pulled out of Tacoma in this thing and headed for Santa Barbara—after spending four months downsizing. I came here help manage the affairs of an aging uncle, that I found through a DNA test six years prior and had only met once. It's a crazy story but I'm glad I did it!

"Antarctic sea ice rebounds in 2026, nearing average after four years"
#Antarctic #Ice #Climate #ClimateChange

Antarctic sea ice rebounds in 2026, nearing average after four years
Antarctic sea ice coverage has likely rebounded this year, coming closer to its annual summer average after four years of extreme lows, US scientists said Monday.

From ⁨⁨⁨⁨⁨#AnnafromUkraine⁩⁩⁩⁩⁩ @AnnafromUkraine@youtube.com
🧵 👇
RUSSIA COLLAPSE: PUTIN’S BIGGEST FAILURE Vlog 1330: War in Ukraine
00:00 – I asked my friends and prominent pro-Ukraine YouTubers just one question: after four years of #Russia’s

Apple says 74% of iPhones launched in the last four years and 66% of all iPhones are running iOS 26; 68% of iPhones were running iOS 18 as of Jan. 21, 2025 (Joe Rossignol/MacRumors)
https://www.macrumors.com/2026/02/13/apple-shares-ios-26-adoption-stats/

Apple Reveals How Many iPhones Are Running iOS 26
Apple has shared updated iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 adoption figures, revealing how many iPhones and iPads are running those software versions. These...

Zohran Mamdani went on a hunger strike with this cab driver in 2021. He drove the NYC mayor to his inauguration four years later | The Independent
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/zohran-mamdani-taxi-driver-inauguration-b2893746.html

Series B, Episode 08 - Hostage
JENNA: Do you know the planet?
BLAKE: I visited it years ago. Spent some time there. It was a penal colony then. Only grade four offenders, allowed visitors, special privileges, that sort of thing.
JENNA: And now?
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/208/152

The People We Cannot See: What Dark Matter Galaxies Tell Us About Invisible Life
In February 2026, astronomers confirmed the existence of a galaxy called CDG-2 that is, for all practical purposes, invisible. Sitting in the Perseus galaxy cluster some 300 million light-years from where you are reading this sentence, CDG-2 is 99% dark matter. It was not found by its starlight, because it has almost none. It was found by four globular clusters huddled together in the…

The People We Cannot See: What Dark Matter Galaxies Tell Us About Invisible Life | David Boles, Blogs
In February 2026, astronomers confirmed the existence of a galaxy called CDG-2 that is, for all practical purposes, invisible. Sitting in the Perseus galaxy cluster some 300 million light-years fro…

Cowboys' All-Pro: Tyler Booker 'one of the best rookies' I've ever seen https://www.dallascowboys.com/news/cowboys-all-pro-tyler-booker-one-of-the-best-rookies-i-ve-ever-seen

JD.com reports Q4 revenue up 1.5% YoY to ~$51B and a ~$391M net loss, its first loss in nearly four years, on weak Chinese spending and a food delivery battle (Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-03-05/jd-c…

Reaching the End of the ICEV Domination: 35 Years of Battery Electric Vehicles in Norway
#EV

Had Fun

Bought a car/micro-camper

Bought a van to do up as a micro-camper, and did a temporary rush job of that conversion myself while waiting in the list for the pro to do it.
Then the pro gave himself a health criss the week it was booked so I took apart my temp job and only got another temp kit-job in it's place.
Went out in it like four times during that and then broke my wrist and couldn't really use it or improve it.
Then had to take it apart even more to try
and figure out where the ad-blue hole was.
I will do a proper permanent job of the
floor and walls and ceiling and adjustments to the kit-job to make it the nicest it's been so far during the spring next year.
My assumption that the prior conversion
into a van and for wheelchair-access meant the microcamper conversion was half-done already turned out to be false.
If I buy a new one, it'll be one that has never been wheelchair adapted.
But it's going okay. Only scraped it once so far.
Fewer than aimed for or booked, but I broke my wrist and had to cancel the second half of the summer.
Went to a conference about money and computers and fringe decentralized social media and it wasn't as boring as you might expect and felt pretty much like a festival.
Exactly the target number! It's lovely.
Took 3 times longer than I'd hoped and
50% more money than I'd planned for really.
Still improvements to make but they will
be incremental and gradual over the coming year or two now.
It's been interest-only for 20 years so a big old lump sum payment that I never really expected to be able to make. Expected to have to sell and move at the end of the mortgage term.
But surprisingly the stocks ISA got high enough to pay it off after all, so I did that.
Cash-flow ruined by that and the bedroom but should start to feel a bit richer next year.

An internal email indicates the BBC plans to shut down its central regional investigations unit, launched in 2022, as part of new cuts to BBC Local (Kevin Stanley/Press Gazette)
https://pressgazette.co.uk/publishers/broadcast/…

BBC proposes to close central regional investigations unit
BBC Local is proposing to close a unit dedicated to investigative journalism in the English regions less than four years after it was set up.

Dark Energy Survey Year 6 Results - Cosmological Constraints from Galaxy Clustering and Weak Lensing: #DarkEnergy come together in a single experiment for the first time. Also Dark Energy Survey - DESI-Independent Angular BAO Measurement: https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.14864. And CosmoSlider - An educational tool for cosmology: https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.16919

Seahawks, OT Charles Cross agree to multiyear extension: Source https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6940469/2026/01/04/seahawks-charles-cross-contract-extension-4-years/

Sources: after Google's $32B deal, each of Wiz's four co-founders is set to get $2B in post-tax cash; Index is set to net $4B, Insight $2.7B, and Sequoia $3B (Sofia Chierchio/Forbes)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/sofiachierchi

Wiz’s Founders And Investors Cash Out As Google’s $32 Billion Takeover Closes
Two years after rejecting a $23 billion offer, Israel-based Wiz secured the largest acquisition in Google’s history and will deliver billion-dollar returns to its founders and investors.

Mailbag: Have DC changes caused struggles? https://www.dallascowboys.com/news/mailbag-have-dc-changes-caused-struggles

NASA began a two-day practice countdown Saturday
leading up to the fueling of its new moon rocket,
a crucial test that will determine when four astronauts blast off on a lunar flyby.
Already in quarantine to avoid germs,
Commander Reid Wiseman and his crew will be the first people to launch to the moon since 1972.
They will monitor the dress rehearsal from their Houston base before flying to Kennedy Space Center once the rocket is cleared for flight.
The 3…

NASA begins a practice countdown for its first moonshot with astronauts in more than 50 years
NASA has begun a two-day practice countdown for its first moonshot with astronauts in 53 years

Estimation of Confidence Bounds in Binary Classification using Wilson Score Kernel Density Estimation
Thorbj{\o}rn Mosekj{\ae}r Iversen, Zebin Duan, Frederik Hagelskj{\ae}r
https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.20947 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2602.20947 https://arxiv.org/html/2602.20947
arXiv:2602.20947v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: The performance and ease of use of deep learning-based binary classifiers have improved significantly in recent years. This has opened up the potential for automating critical inspection tasks, which have traditionally only been trusted to be done manually. However, the application of binary classifiers in critical operations depends on the estimation of reliable confidence bounds such that system performance can be ensured up to a given statistical significance. We present Wilson Score Kernel Density Classification, which is a novel kernel-based method for estimating confidence bounds in binary classification. The core of our method is the Wilson Score Kernel Density Estimator, which is a function estimator for estimating confidence bounds in Binomial experiments with conditionally varying success probabilities. Our method is evaluated in the context of selective classification on four different datasets, illustrating its use as a classification head of any feature extractor, including vision foundation models. Our proposed method shows similar performance to Gaussian Process Classification, but at a lower computational complexity.
toXiv_bot_toot

From the comments: “World leaders now know that Trump’s word means nothing and that no member of his administration can be trusted. They also know that even if 2028 ends the current nightmare, America will always be just four years away from electing someone of his ilk. For that reason, they should count this as a permanent rupture.”
Opinion | We Don’t Need Greenland. We Need Allies. - The New York Times
https://archive.ph/OAzIw

Road warrior: QB Josh Allen leads Bills to comeback win over Jaguars with 3 total TDs https://www.nfl.com/news/road-warrior-qb-josh-allen-leads-bills-to-comeback-win-over-jaguars-with-3-total-tds

With Pete Carroll gone, what is Geno Smith’s future with the Raiders? https://www.reviewjournal.com/sports/raiders/with-pete-carroll-gone-what-is-geno-smiths-future-with-the-raiders-3604152/

Several crew members of a ship that collided with a bridge in Baltimore
almost two years ago
are still being held in the US
by federal authorities
despite the fact that
no criminal charges have been brought against them.
In the early hours of 26 March 2024,
the MV Dali departed the port of Baltimore bound for Sri Lanka.
While navigating the Fort McHenry channel,
the 1,000ft-long Singapore-flagged cargo vessel
lost power before strik…

Mailbag: Have DC changes caused struggles? https://www.dallascowboys.com/news/mailbag-have-dc-changes-caused-struggles

Memos: Disney's chief communications officer, Kristina Schake, is leaving on March 18 after four years, as Bob Iger ends his run as CEO (Cynthia Littleton/Variety)
https://variety.com/2026/biz/news/kristina-schake-bob-iger-disney-out-commu…

Kristina Schake to Exit as Disney Chief Communications Officer
Kristina Schake will step down next month as chief communications officer for Disney, coinciding with Bob Iger's departure as CEO.

Sources: Pats land Packers' Doubs on 4-year deal https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/48164633/sources-romeo-doubs-patriots-4-year-80-million-deal

Four years after the massacre of nine black church goers in Charleston, South Carolina;
two years after the murder of a white anti-fascist and anti-racist activist in Charlottesville, Virginia;
and days after the racially motivated massacre of 22 people who were targeted because their murderer wanted to kill Hispanics,
America has reached a crisis point where we finally have to talk about racism in our society.
But is the media approaching this conversation in an …

Why Corporate Media Doesn’t Talk Honestly About Racism
Media conversations about racism are rarely accurate, let alone honest, facilitating the status quo and hindering systemic change. A discussion between Dylan Rodriguez, Eddie Conway, and Jaqueline Luqman

Source: BBC News is closing BBC Trending, an investigative journalism team launched in 2013 to focus on social media, impacting four jobs, part of broader cuts (Jake Kanter/Deadline)
https://deadline.com/2026/01/bbc-news-closes-bbc-trending-1236698116/
<…

BBC News Closes Social Media Investigations Unit After 13 Years
BBC News is closing BBC Trending, an investigative journalism unit tasked with shedding light on the darker side of social media.

Winter Olympics 2026: Why the NFL Feels More Global Than Ever https://insidethestar.com/winter-olympics-2026-why-the-nfl-feels-more-global-than-ever

After four years of war, millions of Ukrainian families are reaching the breaking point.
They’ve fled not once — but two, three, even four times.
Every time they rebuild, the fighting reaches them again.
Every escape means leaving more behind.
Every displacement pushes them further into uncertainty.
Many families have nowhere to turn.
And a deep funding crisis means UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency,
is being forced to make impossible choices
— …

Saints agree to deal with former Jaguars RB Travis Etienne: Source https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7091488/2026/03/09/travis-etienne-saints-nfl-free-agency-2026/

Longest Super Bowl droughts: Cowboys' absence in NFL's big game reaches 30 years; Lions seek first appearance

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/longest-super-bowl-drought…

Raiders bring back former longtime assistant as pass game coordinator https://raiderswire.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/raiders/2026/02/27/raiders-bring-back-nick-holz-offensive-pass-game-coordinator/889…

Apple's Q1 sales in greater China surged 38% to $25.5B; Tim Cook attributed the increase to users upgrading and switching from other platforms to iPhone 17 (Mark Gurman/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/20

Saints signing ex-Jaguars RB Travis Etienne, ex-Bills OL David Edwards https://www.nfl.com/news/saints-signing-ex-jaguars-rb-travis-etienne-ex-bills-ol-david-edwards

Apple says it plans to move some production of Mac Mini to Houston from Asia later in 2026, as part of its efforts to invest $600B in the US over four years (Rolfe Winkler/Wall Street Journal)
https://www.wsj.com/tech/apple-plans-to-ma

Over the past four years, hedge funds have doubled their footprint in the U.S. debt market,
making the Cayman Islands
— where many hedge funds are officially based
— the place where the most U.S. debt outside the United States is held, according to the Fed.
Typically, people flock to Treasuries for safety in times of crisis.
Yet, driven in large part by hedge fund activity, the Treasury market went through unusual turbulence during recent shocks -- including th…

Opinion | America’s Debt Problem Is Worse Than You’ve Heard
The size of the national debt matters. But so does who America’s lenders are — and that is changing.

Cam Newton to return to Carolina for first time since retirement as pregame drummer for Wild Card vs. Rams

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/cam-newton-carolina-panthers-pregame-d…

IN 2026, The leaders of America’s (former) trading partners are going to have to grapple with the political consequences of tit-for-tat tariffs.
A tariff is a tax paid by consumers, and if there’s one thing the past four years have taught us, it’s that the public will not forgive a politician who presides over a period of rising prices, no matter what the cause.
US Trade Dominance Will Soon Begin to Crack
Savvy countries will discover there’s a way to mitigate the harm inc…

Source: Greenoaks, one of Brex's top investors, will return twice its investment after Capital One's Brex acquisition for $5.15B in a half-cash, half-stock deal (The Information)
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/exit-brex-investors-rising-zombie…

An Exit for Brex Investors; Rising Zombie Funds
Brex’s $5.15 billion agreement to sell to Capital One isn’t the kind of exit employees or investors would have dreamed of four years ago, when it was valued privately at $12.3 billion. But it appears to be a good enough ending to the corporate credit card startup’s run as a private company.For ...

Mike McDaniel on Dolphins future: 'I am the coach ... until told otherwise' https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6943471/2026/01/05/mike-mcdaniel-dolphins-coach-future/

When Trump began his second term, conventional wisdom held that the resistance was moribund.
If that was ever true, it’s certainly not anymore.
This year has seen some of the largest street protests in American history.
Amanda Litman, a founder of Run for Something, a group that trains young progressives to seek local office, told me that since the 2024 election, it has seen more sign-ups than in all of Trump’s first four years.
Just this month, the Republican-domi…

Opinion | Trump Is Getting Weaker, and the Resistance Is Getting Stronger
It’s become easier to imagine the moment when Trump’s mystique finally evaporates.

Eagles are hiring Sean Mannion as offensive coordinator https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7008334/2026/01/29/sean-mannion-eagles-oc-offensive-coordinator-news/

Eagles are hiring Sean Mannion as offensive coordinator https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7008334/2026/01/29/sean-mannion-eagles-oc-offensive-coordinator-newsive-coordinator-news/

Jets RB Breece Hall prepared for whatever awaits him in free agency: 'Whatever happens, happens' https://www.nfl.com/news/jets-rb-breece-hall-free-agency-whatever-happens-happens